Television, internet, and other data services have become ubiquitous in today's society and thus are widely used both by individual and also commercial customers. Such services are offered to homes and businesses through a variety of media, including cable media and over-the-air satellite media.
While cable media was an early and widely-used mode for providing such services, over-the-air satellite services have recently become more popular, particularly in the residential market. Such satellite services require the use of a satellite dish reflector or antenna to receive the signals from a plurality of satellites that are orbiting the earth in a geo-synchronous orbit or some other orbit. Such reflector dishes capture the signals and efficiently reflect and direct those signals to a suitable feed arrangement referred to as an LNB or low noise block converter. The LNB captures the signal from the reflector dish, and then amplifies and down converts the signals to a suitable intermediate frequency. The signals are then directed to receiver electronics for further processing and conversion in order to interface with one or more televisions, computers, or other devices within a building.
To that end, the reflector dishes are often mounted at suitable locations and elevated positions on or around a building for efficient and interference-free reception of the satellite signals. Often, such an elevated location includes the roof or side of a building, such as a house. In that way, the reflector dish has an unobstructed view to the direction of the satellite(s), where the signals originate.
Satellite services are provided by a variety of different companies, and as part of that service, representatives of the company and contractors will install the system and connect the system to the appropriate electronics, such as a television or computer. As part of the installation process, the reflector dish must be mounted securely at a suitable location and then aimed, in both elevation and azimuth, toward the appropriate satellite(s). As such, an installer or contractor must be proficient at mechanically assembling and mounting the satellite dish, as well as connecting and programming the appropriate receiver electronics with the customer's computers, televisions or other devices.
In the current sales of satellite services, such installers/contractors not only provide the installation, but also operate as sales personnel in selling and explaining the various services and service packages that the service provider has available for customers. Various different cost levels and service levels are often available. As such, the sales aspect of the service installation is an important part of the customer interaction by the installation representatives of the service provider. Therefore, it is desirable that sales/service personnel can efficiently install the equipment, so that a significant amount of time might be spent with the actual customer in explaining the services and selling those services. Furthermore, since those sales/service personnel will be visiting a plurality of customers during the course of a business day, it is important that they be able to efficiently install the services, and still have significant sales time to ensure that a customer gets the service package they need, and to ensure that the installer personnel can explain and sell the various packages that are available. Obviously, the greater the amount of services or the higher the level of the service package that is sold to individual customers, the greater the profitability of the installer/contractor as well as the business of the service provider.
One particular hindrance to the sales aspects of an installation is the mechanical difficulty and time required to properly mount and aim the dish reflector for proper reception. As may be appreciated, reflector dish mounts generally utilize a number of different parts and pieces, which must be assembled together properly, and then mounted on a support surface. For example, such a mount assembly involves different fasteners, such as bolts or screws, and the different components of the antenna system must be properly aligned and then secured together in alignment. More specifically, the components must be aligned, held in place in proper alignment, and small fasteners, such as bolts, must be threaded or directed into various holes and tightened or secured into place. This occurs all while holding various heavy components, such as a dish reflector, a mast, support legs, the LNB, etc. Accordingly, existing mounting structures can be complicated and time consuming to install. Furthermore, the installation may require two or more installers to facilitate the handling of the various components, including the dish antenna and its proper mounting. This, in turn, drives up the cost of the overall installation process.
Furthermore, such installations are often made in an elevated position, such as on the roof of a building, or other location, where a ladder is necessary. As such, the installer personnel are often working at the elevated position while manipulating bulky and sometimes awkward components, such as the large dish reflector as well as small fasteners The process is further complicated by the fact that the installers have to ensure that they safely remain at their elevated position during the installation, and avoid falls or other mishaps.
Therefore, one drawback to current installations is that the time taken for such an installation takes away from the time that the installation personnel can spend with the customer for actually selling the various service packages and a possible higher level of service. That is, the complex installation process takes away from the sales interaction with the customer, and thus, decreases the overall profitability of the installation and sales process for the service provider.
Accordingly, it is desirable to improve upon existing antenna systems, and particularly, to improve upon the installation features of such a system to thereby reduce installation time. Furthermore, it is desirable to make the installation as efficient, safe, and secure as possible while providing an increased amount of time for the installation personnel to perform the sales aspects of their job. It is also desirable to enhance the safety aspects of the installation process since the installer is often performing the installation at an elevated position. Still further, it is desirable to provide a secure and strong installation that will ensure that the reflector dish remains in the proper location and aimed position for receipt of the satellite signals. These objectives and various other objectives are addressed by the present invention, as described herein.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with a general description of the invention given below, serve to explain the principles of the invention.